Recently I joined a group of authors, and we started the Mama Writers Community. In honor of all the writers in history who also happened to be mothers, every so often I will write a blog about one of them. Today’s blog is on Mama Writer, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell.
Elizabeth was a novelist and lived during the Regency and Victorian era. She was born Elizabeth Stevenson on September 29, 1810 in Chelsea, London, the last of eight children to her parents William and Elizabeth. She and her eldest brother John (the first born child) were the only children to survive infancy. Her mother died three months after giving birth to her, leaving
her father bereft and at a loss of what to do. He sent Elizabeth to live with her mother’s sister, Hannah Lumb in Knutsford, Cheshire.
Although she didn’t see her father but every few years after he remarried and had two more children, her brother John visited her often until he joined the Merchant Navy with the East India Company Fleet, and went missing in 1827 during an expedition in India, never to be heard from again.
In 1832, she married William Gaskell who was a minister and had a literary career of his own, a perfect match. They settled in Manchester, where William became the minister of Cross Street Chapel as well as an instructor of Literature at Manchester Mechanic’s Institute—later known as the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.
In 1833, they had a still born daughter, followed by five other children, only four of whom survived: Marianne (1834), Margaret Emily (1837), Florence Elizabeth (1842), William (1844-1845 died of scarlet fever), and Julia Bradford (1846).
After the publication of Elizabeth’s first novel, Mary Barton, (which she published anonymously in 1848) in 1850, they rented a villa in Plymouth Grove, where she lived with her family until her death. Her husband and two unmarried daughters continued to live in the house until two decades later when William passed, and the house remained in possession of their two daughters. During Elizabeth's life the house was visited by many literary greats during that time including, Charles Dickens, Harriet Beecher-Stowe and Charles Eliot Norton.
It was said her husband encouraged her to write her first novel as a
distraction to the death of their baby, William. Her husband was a great support for her, helping with dialect, editing her manuscripts and acting as her literary agent. He supported her when critics abused her and when her biography of Charlotte Bronte garnered threats of law suits.
She is best known for her fiction novels Cranford, North and
South, Ruth, Sylvia’s Lovers and Wives and Daughters. In addition to her novels, she did ghost writing, with the help of Charles Dickens who published her gothic stories in his magazine, Household Words.
Elizabeth is also known well for her
biography of her friend, Charlotte Bronte. When Bronte died in 1855, her father approached Elizabeth asking her to write the biography, to which she agreed.
Elizabeth Gaskell died on November 12, 1865 in Hampshire.
Have you read any of Mrs. Gaskell’s work? I read Wives and Daughters when I was seventeen. I thoroughly enjoyed it and have been a fan ever since. Charlotte Bronte also happens to be the author of one of my favorite books, Jane Eyre, so I also felt some pull to read Gaskell’s work, and I'm glad that I did.
Elizabeth was a novelist and lived during the Regency and Victorian era. She was born Elizabeth Stevenson on September 29, 1810 in Chelsea, London, the last of eight children to her parents William and Elizabeth. She and her eldest brother John (the first born child) were the only children to survive infancy. Her mother died three months after giving birth to her, leaving
her father bereft and at a loss of what to do. He sent Elizabeth to live with her mother’s sister, Hannah Lumb in Knutsford, Cheshire.Although she didn’t see her father but every few years after he remarried and had two more children, her brother John visited her often until he joined the Merchant Navy with the East India Company Fleet, and went missing in 1827 during an expedition in India, never to be heard from again.
In 1832, she married William Gaskell who was a minister and had a literary career of his own, a perfect match. They settled in Manchester, where William became the minister of Cross Street Chapel as well as an instructor of Literature at Manchester Mechanic’s Institute—later known as the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.
In 1833, they had a still born daughter, followed by five other children, only four of whom survived: Marianne (1834), Margaret Emily (1837), Florence Elizabeth (1842), William (1844-1845 died of scarlet fever), and Julia Bradford (1846).After the publication of Elizabeth’s first novel, Mary Barton, (which she published anonymously in 1848) in 1850, they rented a villa in Plymouth Grove, where she lived with her family until her death. Her husband and two unmarried daughters continued to live in the house until two decades later when William passed, and the house remained in possession of their two daughters. During Elizabeth's life the house was visited by many literary greats during that time including, Charles Dickens, Harriet Beecher-Stowe and Charles Eliot Norton.
It was said her husband encouraged her to write her first novel as a
distraction to the death of their baby, William. Her husband was a great support for her, helping with dialect, editing her manuscripts and acting as her literary agent. He supported her when critics abused her and when her biography of Charlotte Bronte garnered threats of law suits.She is best known for her fiction novels Cranford, North and
South, Ruth, Sylvia’s Lovers and Wives and Daughters. In addition to her novels, she did ghost writing, with the help of Charles Dickens who published her gothic stories in his magazine, Household Words.Elizabeth is also known well for her
biography of her friend, Charlotte Bronte. When Bronte died in 1855, her father approached Elizabeth asking her to write the biography, to which she agreed.Elizabeth Gaskell died on November 12, 1865 in Hampshire.
Have you read any of Mrs. Gaskell’s work? I read Wives and Daughters when I was seventeen. I thoroughly enjoyed it and have been a fan ever since. Charlotte Bronte also happens to be the author of one of my favorite books, Jane Eyre, so I also felt some pull to read Gaskell’s work, and I'm glad that I did.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar